Orange Walk school wins a Nutrition Quiz

Seven high schools from all over the country competed in the finals of the annual National Nutrition Quiz. The students were tested on a wide range of questions on nutrition and health and at the end of the fourth round, months of preparation paid off for the team from Bishop Martin High. Victory was sweet, for Angel Navidad, Gabriella Castellanos and Davini Chell. News Five’s Delahnie Bain reports.

Delahnie Bain, Reporting

The pressure was on at the Biltmore Plaza this morning as high schools from across the country participated in the championship for the Belize National Nutrition Quiz. School Health Coordinator from the Ministry of Health, Melissa Tucker, says the schools that bested the district competitions made it to today’s final showdown.

Melissa Tucker

Melissa Tucker, School Health Coordinator, Ministry of Health

“The competition is set that we have a first phase where we have the district eliminations. So we invite all fifty-something high schools in the country to participate then we do a district level elimination. So they compete at their districts first and the schools that win come to the national competition, which is the second phase of the competition. So that is what you see happening here today.”

Delahnie Bain

“So how many schools do you have participating today?”

Melissa Tucker

“Today, we have seven. Normally we would have about eight because the Cayo District would have a high number of schools participating, which would lead to two schools participating in that district. This year we only have one from the Cayo District, we have two from the Belize District because of the quantity of schools in these districts. So we have seven.”

At the end of four rounds of questioning, Bishop Martin High School from Orange Walk emerged as the winners and walked away with impressive prizes.

Angel Navidad, Bishop Martin High School

Angel Navidad

“It’s like winning Olympic gold. Dis da like Olympics for us maybe.”

Gabriella Castellanos, Bishop Martin High School

“I’m really excited right now, I can’t even believe it that we won. I’m nervous, I’m really nervous.”

Davini Chell, Bishop Martin High School

“It feels great knowing that all of our hard work, all the sleepless nights, everything paid off. So it’s really good, the feeling is tremendous.”

Gabriella Castellanos

Melissa Tucker

“First place, the three members of the team get a mini laptop, they get a gift basket courtesy of San Cas, they get a certificate of participation and they get a trophy for their school. Second place gets a kindle Fire; that’s the only thing different from the first place; they get the trophy as well. Third place gets and AOC touch screen tablet and they get the other gifts as well.  Fourth and fifth place, they get a gift certificate to buy school supplies, they get a San Cas gift basket and they get a certificate of participation. The sixth and seventh place, they get the gift basket and the certification of participation. So nobody walks away empty handed and they’re still all winners.”

The winning trio, Angel Navidad, Gabriella Castellanos and Davini Chell, have put months of work into preparing for the finals, since they won at the district level.

Davini Chell

“Since that one, from there on we kept on coming with the topics and just reviewing and then even summer we met over some time for summer and when school started, every weekend we used to meet also so the studying it really was—it really paid off.”

Gabriella Castellanos

Davini Chell

“At the beginning we were nervous, but then we gained confidence and we were like oh the questions are easy, we know it so then we relaxed.”

Angel Navidad

“But the last round questions, we confused some things and we made some mistakes that’s why we were all nervous up there.”

Navidad also won the individual championship for answering the most questions in the first round. The Bishop Martin team may have an opportunity to compete on a regional level, but that remains undecided.

Melissa Tucker

“In years gone by we had a third phase, which was the regional competition, however, CFNI (Caribbean Food and Nutrition Institute) has been incorporated into another organization and so we’re not clear what will happen with the regional phase.  It has evolved over the years. It has gotten to the point where we can give very nice gifts to them now at the national and when the regional phase was in effect, if they won and placed in the regional quiz they were able to travel outside of the country. And Belize has come second and first in previous years so we have travelled outside of the country. Last year we were awarded best organizer of a national competition as well.”

While the competition is a learning experience for the students, Tucker says she hopes their families also put the information to good use at home. Delahnie Bain for News Five.

San Pedro High School placed second while Belize High School came third.